I know a few club members have this Radio. Got it yesterday and am playing with it. Figured having one I can use in the house will entice me to learn more about this.

I need to get the programming cable and the freeware commander SW. Seems manually placing freqs into memory works fine, but the tone doesn't get saved with them. The tone is always the last I programmed. This has a lot of features so this may just be operator error. How do I store different tones with the different freq's?

I was on talking on the Colorado connection last night at 146.310 and they could only hear me if I was on 5W and standing near the window. I am going to HRO and see what antennas they have and look for an upgrade. I know I can build one for about $10 but wanted to know if there is a recommended one to buy that is easier to walk around with.

Anyone buy the other mike/speaker setups?

Any other tips? I am just scratching the surface with the functions on this radio. Once I get this one down the weather will be nicer and I'll start playing with the 7800 in the truck again.

I have the programming software and cable (and a USB<->RS232 converter) for the VX-7R. The 78/88/8900 can be hastily set up without a computer, but the VX-7R is less fun. I'll bring it the next few club functions (ham class, March meeting, etc). Someone needs to bring a laptop, SEAKR probably wouldn't want me dragging my workstation all around town.

Antennas. The stock antenna is passable, but I also find that 5W is needed often and you have to be careful about orientation. But it's not as bad as people make it out. A good replacement isn't gonna be $10, but Chris's J-pole would be half of that. That's your best bet IMO.

The antenna that Ray (Gray) had on his VS-7R that one evening was a bad boy! He sounded like he was on a mobile! He said it was about 18" long with a coil 2/3's of the way up. I was impressed! He was in Brighton but hitting the Squaw Mountain 145.145 machine like a big boy!

I now have the software and cable but I need to get the usb adapter for the 7R

I'll be happy to give you some twin lead to make the J-pole antenna. Last time I was on with my VX-7R I was sitting inside at my desk and I think I sounded fine according to the others that were online that night.